SOUTH BEND — The city has agreed to pay $48,000 to settle a nearly four-year-old excessive force lawsuit filed against a police officer. In the early morning hours of Oct. 15, 2006, Charles and Michelle Heritz had returned from a wedding to their home in the 1100 block of South 33rd Street, when they started arguing. Here’s an account, agreed to by both parties, of what happened that night, according to court records: Charles was drunk, having had two pitchers of beer and some mixed drinks at the wedding.

In the wake of allegations that a South Bend police officer used excessive force after a high-speed car chase in February, another man claims the same officer beat him unnecessarily after a chase nearly four years ago. The man, who first made his allegations to The Tribune in 2006, claims that South Bend Police Cpl. Jason King used excessive force against him after a pursuit. Mike Doran, formerly of South Bend, alleges that King Tasered him repeatedly and severely beat him after a car chase through South Bend and Mishawaka on May 11, 2005.

PORTAGE, Ind. (AP) ? A police officer here accused of using excessive force during two separate arrests has been ordered to appear before the police merit board to face departmental charges. Officer Roger Peele faces departmental charges of mistreatment or maltreatment of a prisoner, conduct unbecoming an officer and unsatisfactory performance. He is accused of grabbing one man by the neck and forcing him to the ground and of ripping hair from one woman's head, knocking her to the ground and beating her while she was handcuffed.

SOUTH BEND - Two city police officers are expected to receive suspensions Wednesday for using excessive force in the January arrest of a rape suspect. But the discipline could be more severe than what the police chief previously recommended, after both officers appeared in a closed-door meeting with the Board of Public Safety last week. Cpl. James Aters and Cpl. Ronald Kaszas have been accused by police Chief Darryl Boykins of using excessive force in the arrest of Jose Rodriguez on Jan. 3 after a police chase that started when a woman called police and said she had been raped by an armed man. Boykins, in a letter to the public safety board, said an internal review of the dashboard-mounted video cameras showed that Aters used a Taser on Rodriquez, even though he had no shirt on and appeared to be unarmed.

SOUTH BEND -- As expected, former Roseland Town Council members David and Dorothy Snyder have filed another lawsuit against the town they formerly governed. This lawsuit seeks damages from former town Marshal Jack Tiller and from the town for David Snyder's arrest after he was ejected from a September 2007 council meeting. There was a physical altercation between the two men during the incident. The suit, filed in federal court, alleges Tiller used excessive force and committed battery on Snyder causing injuries.

SOUTH BEND - Three city police officers have been accused of misconduct and face possible suspension from the force. The allegations stem from two separate occasions, including an incident in September when an officer used a racial slur and an incident in January where two officers are accused of using excessive force. Cpl. James Aters is accused of Tapering an unarmed Jose Rodriguez on Jan. 3 after a police chase on the city's west side. Aters is also accused of putting the weight of his body on Rodriguez's hands and head as another officer, Sgt. Ronald Kaszas, hit the man several times with a closed fist.

MISHAWAKA Â? Police are looking into allegations of brutality filed against an officer in connection with a Jan. 13 incident. Â?At this point in time, weÂ?re collecting all statements,Â? Chief Ken Witkowski of the Mishawaka Police Department said Tuesday. Â?If thereÂ?s the possibility of wrongdoing, then we take it to internal affairs.Â? Assistant Chief Mike Samp said that as of Tuesday, the allegations against the officer appeared to be baseless. Â?ThereÂ?s nothing to indicate that he did anything wrong,Â?

SOUTH BEND -- A town of about 1,000 residents, Mentone is the type of place where the police chief is also the assistant chief of the town's volunteer fire department. This rural Kosciusko County community was also the setting of a lawsuit in which a certified cage fighter and his wife accused the town police chief and an officer of excessive force during their arrest -- arrests that were immediately followed by a botched drug sting that used the cage fighter as bait. A federal jury in South Bend Friday found that the officers in question did not use excessive force when arresting Scott and Lisa Blevins, of Mentone, on March 5, 2009.

SOUTH BEND -- A federal jury is poised to resolve a dispute stemming from the 2009 arrest of a Mentone, Ind., man in which the two officers involved are accused of being unnecessarily rough. But, as described in U.S. District Court papers, the incident sparked such divergent accounts from each side that a judge ruled the case should be heard by a jury "to sort this out. " In writing his order denying the defendants' request for a summary judgment, Chief Judge Philip Simon describes the events that have led to the trial slated to begin Wednesday.

When police officers pursue resisting suspects, they should have the license to use necessary means to subdue the offender. But they should not exceed those means to take punitive measures against such suspects. The question of where the line is drawn between "necessary" and "punitive" is the crux of an Anderson case recently considered by the Indiana Court of Appeals. In 2008, Marquis Brooks filed a complaint against the city, claiming he had been subjected to "intentional tortuous conduct" when he was arrested in December 2006 after an incident at a local teen club.

SOUTH BEND -- Two separate lawsuits filed against the city of South Bend and its police department were recently dismissed -- one involving the fatal shooting of a bank robbery suspect and the other concerning an officer's arrest of two people at a hotel. In 2010, the mother and children of Brian Szuflita filed a suit alleging South Bend police officers Joshua Morgan and Chris Slager had a "duty to protect" Szuflita from the "use of deadly force" as they chased him following a 1st Source bank robbery on July 25, 2008.

SOUTH BEND - A South Bend police officer accused in a federal lawsuit of unlawful entry, excessive force and wrongful arrest has filed a response in U.S. District Court, denying many of the allegations. In September, Germaine Harris, his girlfriend and their children filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court against Patrolman Theo Robert, nine officers at the St. Joseph County Jail, the city of South Bend, the St. Joseph County Police Department, and the St. Joseph County sheriff.

SOUTH BEND -- The actions of a South Bend police officer during an arrest 18 months ago have led to a federal lawsuit in which 27-year-old Germaine Harris alleges he was falsely arrested, wrongfully imprisoned, and the victim of excessive force. Harris and his girlfriend filed the lawsuit last month in U.S. District Court against Patrolman Theo Robert, nine officers at the St. Joseph County Jail, the city of South Bend, the St. Joseph County Police Department and the St. Joseph County sheriff.

SOUTH BEND -- The city has agreed to pay $48,000 to settle a nearly four-year-old excessive force lawsuit filed against a police officer. In the early morning hours of Oct. 15, 2006, Charles and Michelle Heritz had returned from a wedding to their home in the 1100 block of South 33rd Street, when they started arguing. Here's an account, agreed to by both parties, of what happened that night, according to court records: Charles was drunk, having had two pitchers of beer and some mixed drinks at the wedding.

SOUTH BEND — The city has agreed to pay $48,000 to settle a nearly four-year-old excessive force lawsuit filed against a police officer. In the early morning hours of Oct. 15, 2006, Charles and Michelle Heritz had returned from a wedding to their home in the 1100 block of South 33rd Street, when they started arguing. Here’s an account, agreed to by both parties, of what happened that night, according to court records: Charles was drunk, having had two pitchers of beer and some mixed drinks at the wedding.